An Unexpected Present
by SuperMegaFoxyAwesomeHot77
Summary: One shot. Malfoy and Astoria have never been the best of friends. His father wants him to be friends with the Slytherin purebloods...and he doesn't exactly listen to his father. Without all their friends around, on Malfoy's thirteenth birthday, something may change.


**Disclaimer- Harry Potter and all else belongs to the amazing JK Rowling**

**A/N- I wrote this one shot between Malfoy and Astoria Greengrass, because I refuse to believe Draco ends up with Pansy. And yes Malfoy's birthday is really June 5th, confirmed by JK Rowling. Happy Birthday Draco! It's really just drabble about one of their more happy conversations. Please review and I'll review all of yours promise!**

Spring had come to its end at Hogwarts, and the long lazy days of summer were quickly creeping up on everyone. Exams were just around the corner, and studying had become a sort of madness for the students. Well, excepting the Slytherins, that is. Sure they were ambitious and all, but they really didn't feel the need to put all their time into memorizing something you forget the moment after the exam is taken.

A perfect example of this was Draco Malfoy. His birthday, June 5th, was that very day. He felt that studying was beneath him, and besides shouldn't he be exempted from all that? After all, his 13th birthday was today.

He was sprawled out across the large black leather sofa in the Slytherin common room. A fire in the large, black marble hearth was hissing and sparking, while flickering an odd green. Despite the fact that it was summer, the fire was always on, it just gave off no heat. Malfoy was staring intently into the green hued flames, while he mused his possible birthday gifts. Although he suspected he knew what all of them were.

His father had given him, and the Slytherin Quidditch team, all Nimbus 2001's last year, as an early birthday present for him. It also had been a sort of a bribe, but Draco would've made the team eventually. He was a fabulous flyer after all, but he hadn't wanted to rely on talent just in case. If Potter, _the_ muggle loving scar head could make it, then it was a given that Malfoy could as well. It also was a bit of a security measure to give the team new brooms, in the event they tried to kick him off. If he left, the brooms would be gone as well.

Being a stellar Quidditch player came naturally to him, but morning practices did not. They were god awful, and a rubbish waste of time. Flint still forced them all onto the field almost every morning, while ignoring their cursing. Malfoy may have missed one, two or seven practices right before a game, because every time they had a practice he enchanted his bed to make him invisible. The enchantment only lasted an hour or so, but it was enough time for the team to quit looking, and go out onto the pitch. This left Malfoy to his beauty sleep, while puzzling and infuriating the team. What he really wanted for his birthday was-

"Budge over! You're not the only one in the common room you know," said someone directly behind him, before he could finish his thought. He turned around quickly; about to tell the speaker exactly what they could go do themselves, when he saw who it was.

Dammit, it was Astoria Greengrass, an old family friend. Well, not of his, but his father's.

Every day she and her friends occupied the sofa that he was laying on, and chattered for seemingly hours. Her and her best friends Hazel and Amber never stopped talking or laughing in the loudest manner humanly possible. Today she was alone, if you didn't count her giant book bag. She was rude, smart and funny, making her a general pain in the ass. It was entirely fun to tease her.

Lucious Malfoy expected Draco to be friendly to the purebloods in Slytherin, who had influential parents in the ministry. Sadly, Astoria was one of them, but he didn't really meet his father's standards.

"Oh, sorry, Malfoy," she smirked, "I didn't recognize you. But I guess that's what happens when someone you know gets fat and stupid." She did not just insult a Malfoy's looks! Draco prided himself on being the sexiest Slytherin. After all who doesn't like a tall, lithe blond? He sneered back at her, and drawled,

"You know you shouldn't say that about yourself. Slytherin has a reputation to uphold and it wouldn't be well for one of us to be repulsive. Oh wait, I forgot, you're supposed to be in Hufflepuff, never mind."

"I would rather be eaten by the giant squid," she glared. "Now budge over you little shit."

"Temper, temper. Does your mommy know you talk like that? And it shouldn't be too hard to arrange something like that to happen, for after all the giantt squid eats trash as well as other things." She snorted in response.

"And as for me being little, I'm twice your height." Toria was as short as her temper, which was to say very short indeed. She had dark brown hair and eyes to match her cinnamon skin. Her spattering of light brown freckles made for an adorable picture, besides the fact that she looked down right ferocious most of the time. Her height was a bit of a sore subject for her. She was two years younger than Draco, and was smaller than many of the first years. Her sister Daphne was in his year, but she was much more quiet and reserved.

Astoria was glaring at him in a way that suggested she was very close to hexing him. Every time he saw her, he made sure to bring up her height, for it always made her utterly furious. Who wouldn't pass up on that opportunity? In order to avoid being hexed in some torturous way, Malfoy languidly stood up off the sofa, and plopped into a nearby armchair. Her eyes narrowed at him, she sank down onto the sofa, and dropped her enormous book bag onto the floor, with a colossal bang.

"Bloody hell, what are you keeping in that bag?" In response she emptied it out onto the sofa. A stack of almost fifteen books dropped out of it.

"What are those for?"

"They're for reading Malfoy. Ever heard of it? Oh wait, I forgot, you don't know how," she laughed.

"You seriously don't belong in Slytherin if you are reading those all," he said.

"Wow. Just wow. You are an idiot! We have exams in two days!" Austoria said looking shocked that he could forget such an important thing. Malfoy snorted.

"Ever heard of having fun? Studying is the opposite of that, and I don't plan to engage in it. Besides it's my birthday in a today."

"Have fun repeating your third year then," she snickered. There was no response from Malfoy, and Toria glanced over at him. He was looking at her with expectance in his grey eyes. It took her a moment before she realized what he was waiting for.

"No, I'm not going to wish you a happy birthday. It's not my fault you have no friends," she laughed. He pouted at her. No matter how much they disliked each other, he still deserved a 'happy birthday.'

"Crabbe and Goyle are in detention, and Zabini is in Potions, trying to suck up to Snape. Seemed like a waste of time to me so I left," he said, explaining for his general lack of friends.

"Whoever attempts to suck up to Snape is just set up for failure. He's not gonna fail a Slytherin, but he's not gonna give us good marks either. No matter how hard you brown nose," she said knowingly, in a way that implied she had attempted that last year. "That's why I gotta study now, while my friends have fun without me." Astoria sighed. "I haven't really payed attention this year, like at all, so it's either this or fail."

"You just said Snape doesn't fail Slytherins. Or are you admitting to being a Hufflepuff now?"

"He never fails us because we're in his house. Not failing applied to me until yesterday, when I placed a dungbomb on his chair. I'm positive he hates me now." Malfoy snickered at the thought.

"It's not my fault he sat on it! And he has no proof it was me," she protested, while laughing along with him. "Alright well I gotta study now, so shut it," she smirked.

Draco stood up in one fluid movement. As long as he wasn't going to study, he might as well go suck up to the teacher with Zabini. He had the right idea.

After all, Draco Malfoy wasn't a Ravenclaw by far. He was a Slytherin forever. As he strolled away from the fire and sofas, he heard Astoria call after him,

"Happy birthday Draco."

The day suddenly seemed a bit brighter. Maybe he would get a bit of studying done and maybe even show up for the last Quidditch practice. If he and Astoria could get a conversation through without strangling each other, than perhaps anything was possible. Malfoy left the Slytherin common room with a bit more swagger in his step than usual.

Their conversation was a bit of an unexpected present.


End file.
